Take 5: What we learned from Ireland’s tight win over Italy

This evening's individual review process for the Ireland team will be a little painful for most as Ireland coach Joe Schmidt analyses the performance against Italy in their 16-9 victory at the Olympic Stadium.

The players are far from naïve and will appreciate that Sunday’s collective display was below the standards they set for themselves as a group, acknowledging as much in the aftermath of the game.

It was a very physical game and there'll be plenty of sore bodies for a day or two but Ireland are safely into the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup and what Sunday's game against France will determine is what country they'll face.

The 'works-on' as they like to call them are wide ranging across every facet of the game. It wasn't all doom and gloom as evidenced by a number of fine individual displays, Iain Henderson, Rory Best and in the second half in particular, Peter O'Mahony, while Devin Toner made an impact from the bench.

INTENSITY AND DECISION MAKING

Rory Best spoke about the fluctuating levels of intensity that hampered Ireland's performance. Italy were aggressive in the collisions and grew in confidence when they saw that Ireland were struggling to break them down. What's not negotiable in rugby is the physical element. Peter O'Mahony offered a brilliant cameo of determination and commitment in hunting down Josh Furno to prevent a try. That must be present in everyone's game for 80 minutes. Whatever patterns a team chooses, the foundations of success are laid by an unrelenting physicality. Ireland were slightly scattered in approach at times; box-kicks being put up but no winger there to chase the ball was just one example.

SHARPNESS

There was one classic illustration. Jonathan Sexton hit the post with a penalty and a wide angled view from behind him highlighted Tommy Bowe as the only chaser in the frame and he jogged the first 10 metres before realising the ball was travelling close to the upright and started to sprint. It was an unusual rebound in that it came off the inside of the post and went across to the other side of the pitch and it took a couple of seconds for Sergio Parisse to scoop up the ball. In fairness to Bowe, he was first there and made the tackle, followed by Henderson but there should be integrity to everything the players do and that includes the mundane chore of chasing placekicks. On that note Bowe excelled in the air but his team-mates weren't alive to his well-directed tap backs. There was a lack of sharpness.

PREDICTABLE

Canada showed against France the value of having three forwards as potential receivers from rucks and varying the options. On several occasions a flat pass to the widest player in the pod allowed Canada to get outside the massed French defence, which was tighter in to the ruck. Seán O’Brien managed manfully against the Italians but he must have bruises on his bruises. Ireland need to be less predictable in trying to get runners over the gainline.

SET PIECE

For the third week in a row Ireland's lineout was faultless and it gave them a perfect attacking platform that they didn't capitalise upon. The scrum was pretty solid, especially given the fact that referee Jerome Garces allowed the ball to remain at Parisse's feet for an inordinate amount of time based on a scrum going nowhere.

DISCIPLINE

The referee is right even when he is wrong. There is no future for team’s that give away double-figure penalty counts and it’s something that Joe Schmidt is rightly pernickety about. Ireland must develop an empathy with the referee and must guard against serial offending. There is no excuse for being repeatedly penalised for the same offence, like not releasing or not rolling away in the tackle.